


Tom Cat

by forestlady426



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Drabbles, Future AU, Future Fic, One Shot, Oneshot, Sad, Short One Shot, i dunno i guess i just was like i wanna be sad today
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 04:20:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12027978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestlady426/pseuds/forestlady426
Summary: In a future after retiring their days as Ladybug and Cat Noir, Adrien visits several of his now-married high school friends, and reflects on what might have been.





	Tom Cat

“Hey, it’s the tom cat!” Nino exclaimed, clapping Adrien on the back as he welcomed him into the hallway of the apartment. “How you doing, Adrien?”  
“Hey Nino,” Adrien responded through a grimace. Tom cat, he thought bitterly. All these years later and I’m still-  
“Adrien! You made it!” Another familiar voice called his name, and he turned to see bright-eyed Alya trotting up to them. She embraced him in a hug.  
“Hey.” He managed a real smile this time. “How’s married life?”  
As a response, the two giggled, and Alya gave Nino a quick peck on the cheek. “We’re finally moved in, so that’s something,” Nino said. “Can’t wait to give you the grand tour of everything.” He started forward, the other two following him. “It’s not much, but it’s home.”  
“We’ve got a living room, a bathroom, couple of bedrooms and a kitchen - what more do you need?” Alya said. Her eyes locked on Nino in the way that newlyweds look at each other that makes you happy for them, but also want to scream at them to get a room. Adrien was leaning towards the latter at this point, but he knew this was only the beginning of what would test his patience.  
He elbowed Nino in the side, giving him a smirk. “Wait, you cook?” Adrien asked him, who laughed in response.  
“Nah, I let the wife handle that,” he responded, returning the gaze from Alya. Adrien suppressed the urge to vomit.  
“You’re going to learn, I swear. Unless you forgot that grad school classes are mostly at night? And no, boxed mac and cheese is not an appropriate dinner for every day of the week,” Alya said, squashing each of Nino’s protests before he could get them out. She let out a sigh and shook her head as they stopped in front of a door with a large brass number “7” hanging on the front. She held her hands out towards it. “Well, here it is!”  
“Welcome to El Casa de Lahiffe,” Nino said, throwing the door open.  
Looking inside, Adrien saw the small living room, which was quaintly decorated - no doubt Alya’s doing. He waved at his friends sitting on the leather couches arranged around the room - Nathan, Rose, Juleka - who were watching some sports game idly on the TV. To the right was a hallway, and to his left-  
“Adrien!” His face went red as he was wrapped in the warmest hug he had received in a long, long time. Just as suddenly, however, Marinette jumped back, with that look of shock on her face that only appeared when she’d done something clumsy. “Oh- sorry- I totally forgot- there’s flour all over you-”  
He finally noticed the apron she was wearing, which was, as she had said, covered in flour and other cooking ingredients. Looking down, Adrien saw that much of the flour had made its way all over his jeans and black top. “Well, would you look at that,” he said. “Guess I’ll have to leave now. Marinette ruined my clothes-”  
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” Marinette protested. “Just - dab at it with a damp cloth, but don’t rub, because that’ll work the flour in worse, and oh my god I’ve already made a mess.” She hung her head in distress.  
Alya laughed from behind Adrien. “Are you sure you’re a professional baker?” she asked. “I don’t think they’re allowed to spill things.”  
Marinette crossed her arms in protest. “I don’t spill things, Alya. I just… make a mess. All the time. Everywhere. Because I’m clumsy.” She sighed.  
“It’s fine, Marinette,” Adrien said. “I’m not going to die from a little flour on my clothes.” He moved into the living room and sat on one of the couches, and was joined by Nino and Alya. He looked at Nathan and gave him a smile. “How do you live with her?” he asked, shaking his head.  
Nathan shrugged, smiling. “When you’ve got a wife who’s as amazing as Marinette, she’s just charming in everything she does,” he said.  
Adrien’s heart dropped to his stomach. Yep, there it was.  
“Ooh, I can’t wait for chocolate cake!” Rose said, feet bouncing off of the floor. “Especially Marinette’s!”  
“She’s going to do our wedding cake, right Mari?” Juleka called to Marinette from over Rose’s shoulder.  
“Of course!” Marinette said. The oven door banged shut and Marinette made her way over to the rest of the group. Adrien couldn’t help but feel even more hurt as she took her spot right next to Nathan. “I’ve kind of accepted the fact that I’m doing everyone’s wedding cake, at this point.”  
“So I take it the bakery is going well?” Adrien asked, to which Marinette nodded, smiling. “That’s good to hear.”  
“Business is booming, and we have such a nice space for Nath to work on his graphic novels,” Marinette said, leaning a little further into her husband. Nathan. The man that she had married.  
Adrien couldn’t stop thinking that it should have been him.  
“How is -” Rose started, and then stopped. She looked down, a concentrated look on her face. Right away, Adrien knew she was framing the question carefully.  
“America is charming in its own sense,” he said, watching not just Rose, but the entire room relax. “I know father would never have approved of the move, but, well, things have changed.” He meant it light heartedly and shrugged, but the room tensed again. Good going, tom cat, he thought. He watched as Marinette looked down at her hands, face becoming serious.  
“Are you excited for your journalism classes?” Nathan asked suddenly, and Alya blinked as she realized the topic had changed.  
“Oh - oh yeah!” she said, grinning. “I’m starting an internship with a local news radio next week too.”  
“You’re welcome, by the way,” Nino said, grinning. He leaned closer to the group, as if to make his next statement a secret. “It’s at my station.”  
“It’s not your station,” Juleka said. “It’s just where you work.”  
“Same difference,” he said, leaning back. He let his arm drape behind Alya’s shoulders on the back of the couch. “I still helped.”  
“Yes, and I am forever grateful. Now remember who makes dinner in this house,” Alya replied, shooting Nino a look. “And no, straight marinara sauce is not ‘dinner.’ We’ve been over this.”  
“Details,” Nino said, waving it off with a grin. He looked at Juleka and Rose. “How’s wedding planning going?”  
Adrien continued to watch Marinette as she moved closer to Nathan, who draped a protective arm around her shoulders. No doubt she was thinking about the same thing as he was. He could still hear her words - “We’ve been through too much together, Chat. You must hate me for everything that happened… It’s all my fault.” The day that they had retired from their Miraculous, despite all protest from others. Adrien wondered how Plagg was doing. He then thought about Nooroo, and then didn’t want to think about anything else anymore. Marinette looked up, and their eyes locked for a moment. They both looked away.  
“Earth to Adrien?”  
He blinked and noticed the others staring at him. “S-sorry, what did you ask me?” he said. He was uncomfortably aware of the looks that the others exchanged.  
“Are you going back to America?” Rose asked. “I wasn’t sure how your trip had gone. It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from you.”  
“Oh,” he replied, trying to sit up straighter. He thought about how he shouldn’t have come, how he was making everything worse for everyone else. “No- I’ll probably be heading back in a few months. I should - you know, see everyone since I’m here.” He stumbled over his words. He knew he wasn’t convincing anyone.  
“You know, if you ever need to…” Nino said, choosing his words very carefully, “... uh, talk, I guess-”  
“I’m gonna go see him at some point,” he said. “I need to tie up loose ends and all that.” He looked Marinette in the eyes. “Probably tonight, where it happened.”  
“Ah, cool,” Nino said. A long silence followed. The game played in the background.  
“What’s the strangest thing you’ve eaten in America?” Rose asked, smiling.  
“Alright, well, their bread is the worst thing I’ve ever eaten in my life,” Adrien started, ready to regale them with stories of processed food, hot dogs on sticks, and pretty much everything they eat in “the south” of America. The mood immediately picked up, and for a while, they were able to talk freely about whatever.They ate cake, Juleka asked Marinette to be a bridesmaid, and Nino and Alya bantered like the newlyweds they were. The rest of the night felt like the old days in high school. Except everyone was married now. And Adrien wasn’t.  
“You must hate me.” She’d said. She couldn’t have been farther from the truth. The only one he hated was himself. She’d done what he would have never been able to do - stop Hawkmoth for good. Stop his father for good. And she hated herself for it, too.  
The world was cruel.  
After a few hours, the first ones to leave were Juleka and Rose. Despite her low tolerance for alcohol, Rose insisted on drinking and with Adrien’s help, Juleka ended up carrying her drunk fiance out to the car. Adrien couldn’t help smiling at the way that Juleka scolded her, reminding her how “This is what always happens” and that “Just because there is free booze, you don’t need to drink all of it.” When they’d finally made it, Juleka thanked Adrien for the help and gave him a hug. “Call us sometime. Before the wedding. We miss you,” she told him, before driving away.  
Nathan was next, talking about how he needed to get back to work, as he had a rather large deadline coming up soon and needed to finish his sixth draft before submitting it to the publishers. Alya begged Marinette to stay just a little longer, and offered to drive her home the next day. After a long debate, Marinette agreed and Nathan left, wishing Adrien the best in America.  
Finally, Adrien felt as though he’d overstayed his welcome and excused himself. “Not that you guys aren’t cool or anything,” he said, “but you know, this tom cat’s gotta split.” He winced. Oh god, he was using that stupid name too.  
“I’ll walk you out,” Marinette said quickly, jumping up from where she sat. “If that’s okay.”  
Adrien smiled, despite himself. “Sure, Marinette.”  
In the hallway, Marinette looked down at the ground again. “Well, kitty, it has been a while,” she said. Her voice barely made it out of her throat.  
“Same to you, Bugaboo,” Adrien replied. He smiled. It felt so good to call her that once more. He looked forward, but continued to glance back at her. “Does Nathan-”  
“Please, I’m sorry,” she said, stopping suddenly. She turned to him with tears in her eyes. “Don’t be upset please-”  
“Does he treat you right?” His voice was solemn.  
“Yes… He does.”  
Adrien smiled. “That’s all I care about, Marinette,” he told her, ripping his heart out as he said every word.  
Marinette smiled, and for a minute he was grateful for what he’d said. “Okay…” she said. Her face dropped again. “Adrien, I’m sorry…”  
“You did what you had to do,” Adrien said, a serious look on his face again. “You didn’t kill him, Marinette. He chose to do what he did.”  
“I know, but I didn’t save him!” she protested. “That’s the same thing!”  
“It’s not.” He took her hands in his, looking her in the eyes. “It’s not, m’la- …Marinette.” He blinked his eyes fiercely and shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” He pulled her close to him, letting her sob into his shoulder.  
“I have nightmares about it still,” she said into his shirt. “Nathan helps… But I still have them.”  
“I’m glad you have him,” Adrien said. I’d be more glad if I had you.  
“This is why…” She choked on a sob. “This is why we can’t… we could never…”  
“I know Bugaboo,” he said. And he did. “I know.”  
After a few more minutes, they let go. Marinette’s eyes were red and swollen, and Adrien prayed she couldn’t see how his were as well. “You know I will always love you,” she said to him.  
“I know.” He didn’t have to tell her that he felt the same. She knew.  
“Let me know how America goes.”  
“Send me some pastries sometime.”  
In another time, they would have sealed the promise with a “pound it.” They both just smiled as he walked out of the apartment, wishing vainly for the time to return. It never would.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! This is my first work here on AO3 and I am really excited to be putting fics up! I am a huge ML fan and I will probably post a lot of stuff about that... because I am children's show trash. Anyways, thanks for reading my first work! Appreciate it much :)


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